To Tempt a Sheikh(8)

Then he raised his eyes and almost had her keeling over in his lap.

Those golden orbs were emitting a steady energy, a calming power that  seeped through hers, into her brain, flooding her whole body.

The son of a … king was trying to hypnotize her!

And he was almost succeeding. Even now.

So. She'd gravely underestimated him. She'd thought, with the novelty of  her resistance depleted, his facade of endless patience and indulgence  would crack, exposing his true face. That of an all-powerful prince used  to having people cower before him. But it seemed he was also an  infallible character-reader, realized that intimidation would get him  nowhere with her. So he wasn't playing that card just yet. Not before he  gave all the others in his formidable arsenal a full demo.

So Prince Harres Aal Shalaan wasn't who he was just because he'd been  delivered into the royal family, hadn't qualified for his position in  the family business because he'd grown up playing desert raiders. He  evidently had staying power, was in command of himself at all times. He  had long-term insight and layered intelligence, remained on top of any  situation. And he had uncanny people skills and truckloads of charisma,  made willing followers of everyone he crossed paths with.

He had of her, too. But no more.

The bucket of drool stopped here.

Then he spoke in that polyphonic voice of his, which made her feel as if  it was coming from all around her, from inside her, and she almost  revised her certainty. Almost.

"I don't know what you've been hearing about the Aal Shalaans, or from  whom, but you've been misled. We're neither despots nor criminals."

"Sure. And I'm supposed to take your word for it."

"Yes, until I'm in a position to prove it. I would at least demand you grant us the benefit of the doubt."

"Oh, if I had any, I'd grant it. But I don't, so I won't."

"Won't you at least make your accusations and give me a chance to come up with a defense?"

"I'm sure you can come up with anything you wish. You'd fabricate enough  evidence to confuse issues with reasonable doubt. But this isn't a  court of law, and I'm not a judge. I'm just someone who knows the truth.  And I'm here collecting evidence to prove it."

"To prove what?"

"That you're not all above reproach as you paint yourselves to be."

He gave a shrug with his right shoulder. It was eloquent with concession  and dismissal. The man spoke, expressed, with every last inch of his  body. "Who in any place of power doesn't have someone with a beef  against them? Ruling a country isn't all plain sailing. Laws and rulings  are contested, whether economic, military or judicial, by others with  opposing views or interests. In my own peacekeeping and business  capacities, I'm sure my decisions and actions always leave someone  disgruntled. That doesn't mean I'm evil. I've certainly done nothing  criminal in my life."

"Oh, you're too clever to do something overt. But you, Mr. Peacekeeping  Entrepreneur, manipulate the law, and people. Like you did me. Like  you're still trying to. But I'm on to you. I'm on to your whole family.  That you call yourselves a royal family doesn't make you any less  criminal. Many so-called rulers were deposed then brought to justice for  crimes against their people. As you one day, and soon I hope, will be."

Okay. She'd done it. She'd ensured her place at the top of his blacklist.

And again, the tenacious man refused to get it over with and validate her fear, release his mask.

His face remained the very sight of sincerity, his voice the very sound  of earnestness. "You can believe what you wish, Talia. But I will also  say what I wish, my version of the truth. I would have come to save you,  no matter who you were. And whomever I saved would have been safe with  me. Whatever your agenda is, you are safer with me than with your own  family. You scoff now, but when you weren't applying your prejudice to  me, you, too, believed it was an act of fate for us to share this, to  feel this powerfully about each other, to see the other for what we  truly are without the help or hindrance of identities and history. I now  urge you to look beyond what you think you know, to what you do know.  Of me. You're a doctor, and you're used to seeing people stripped to  their basic nature during emergencies. You've seen me as I really am  through the best tests of all-the litmus of mortal danger, and your own  valiant efforts at exercising your potent provocation."                       
       
           



       

She gaped at him for a long moment.

Then she shook her head on a bewildered, belligerent chuckle. "You  should have been a diplomat. You'd hog-tie anyone in a net of platitudes  and persuasions so thick, they wouldn't see the way out and would soon  stop wanting one. But it's too late with me, so save it."

His gaze lengthened in turn. She could swear he was struggling not to  smile again. At last he exhaled, like a man bound on tolerating a  nuisance for life, leveled that supernatural gaze on her. "You believe  you have reason to hate us. Tell me."

"I'm telling you nothing. As far as I'm concerned, you're no better than  my kidnappers. You're actually far worse. My enmity with them was  incidental. I was just the source of damaging info to their hereditary  enemies. But with your family, my enmity is very specific. And don't  play the 'I took a bullet saving you' card. I now realize why you did.  You want what they wanted. And my answer to you is the same one I gave  them. You can go take a flying leap from one of your capital's  world-record-high skyscrapers."

"Is that how you always reach your verdicts, Talia? You judge by  symptoms that have many differential diagnoses and insist on the first  one that occurs to you and explains them?"

She gritted her teeth against the urge to punch him again. The man made  perfect sense every time he opened his mouth. Was there no provoking him  into making his first mistake? "Oh, don't start with the professional  similes. You know nothing about me."

"I may not know the facts about you, but I know a lot about the truth.  I'm certain of everything I know, through the proof of your actions in  the worst possible conditions. You're brave and daring and capable and  intense. You're passionate in everything you do and about everything you  believe in, most of all your sense of justice. Be fair with me now.  Give me a chance to defend my family. Myself. Please, Talia, tell me."

His every word expanded in her heart like a compulsion trying to spread  out and take hold of her. She resisted his influence, slammed him with  her frustration. "I told you not to call me that. But since you're  breath-depleting and you can talk me under the sand, just call me T.J.  if you must call me at all. Everyone does."

This time he let that smile spread on his lips again. "Then something's  wrong with everyone you know, if they can look on your beauty and think  something as sexless and characterless as T.J., let alone articulate it.  I'm calling you nothing but Talia. Or nadda jannati. It's impossible  for me not to. Deal with it."

She gave a smothered screech. "For Pete's sake, turn off your  female-enthrallment software. It won't work anymore. It's making me so  sick that I'd rather you use your fists like my captors did."

It was as if she'd hit a button, fast-forwarding his face from teasing to ominous. He rasped, "They hit you?"

She instinctively rubbed the lingering ache in her gut, which had been  swamped by far more pressing urgencies. "Oh, a couple did, just for  laughs. It wasn't part of the interrogation, since those jerks weren't  cleared to engage in that, and I bet their orders were not to damage me.  But they couldn't resist bullying the smaller man they thought I was.  One made it sound as if it's some duty a true Zohaydan owes any  foreigner messing in the kingdom's business."

His teeth made a bone-scraping sound. "I wish I had used something other  than tranq darts to knock them out. Something that would have caused  permanent damage"

She gave an impressive snort. "Stop pretending to care."

"I can't stop something I'm not pretending. And I would have cared had  you been a man, even the spy with the multiple agenda I thought you to  be. Nothing is more despicable or worthy of punishment than abusing the  helpless. Under any pretext. Those men aren't patriots as they  pretended, they're vicious, cowardly lowlifes who can't pass up a chance  to take their deficiencies out on those who can't retaliate."

"Right. Like you're the defender of the weak and the champion of the oppressed."

He gave a solemn nod. Then, as if he was renewing a blood oath, he said, "I am."

And she couldn't hold back, blurted it all out. "Like you defended my  brother? Like you championed him against the bullies in your family who  abused their power and threw him in jail?"





Four




Harres had thought he'd been ready for anything.